Elijah very rarely paid attention to anyone attempting to call or summon him for any reason. While he liked to think that he had some control over his personal monster, dealing with desperate people who had nothing to offer him was simply not what he chose to spend his days on. Worse were the ones who thought they were somehow clever enough to outwit him. Some days, they would be entertaining. But the vast majority of experience saw them as nothing but trouble.

He had one task worth pursuing, and that was avenging his family. Their bodies might still live, but they had been cast away, scattered into the oceans. Elijah could spend lifetimes searching for them and still never succeed. Klaus had taken their promise of always and forever and spat it out, betraying them all as he continued to run across the world from their father.

Revenge might not be the best thing to live for, but it saw Elijah up in the morning. It had connected him to the warlock Jonas Martin and his son, who wanted to save their daughter and sister respectively from his brother's sphere of influence. He could not imagine why his brother had seduced the girl, what the fool thought he might accomplish when it was his own fault the doppleganger line was finished. Frankly, he no longer cared. The days he spent his time traipsing about cleaning after Niklaus had ended when he saw fit to destroy their family permanently. Their father had been trying for centuries, but it was Niklaus who had succeeded in the effort. Greta was a potential weakness in his brother's retinue that he was more than happy to exploit, for her family would do anything to bring her home.

The fact that he frequently ignored anyone he deemed unworthy of his time did not leave the man unaware when someone started tugging at his known aliases and contacts. There had been a few half hearted attempts earlier in the week from whomever the motivated party was that Elijah had ignored, as he had told Jonas they were not his priority. Whoever was pursuing him had finally netted his interest, however, when he received a message regarding Rosemarie.

The girl and that insufferable, disloyal worm she kept as a pet by her side had been running from his justice for over five centuries. He had no doubt that she could have continued to evade him for longer still. That she had been emboldened enough to call upon the very person who was hunting her down, that interested Elijah. Her crime had been assisting Katerina Petrova in escaping back in 1492. While Elijah had no doubt that Rosemarie had brokered no desire of her own to betray him or his brother, it was still her blood that allowed Katerina to transition into a vampire and destroy Klaus' chance of breaking his curse. Katerina's life extension had supposedly dried up in 1864, burned alive by the townsfolk in a church in an event that would later be covered up with an excuse about the American civil war. Elijah had his own suspicions as to what might have happened. No proof as yet, true, but while even the dead body of Katerina might get his brother's attention, Elijah had high hopes that Rosemarie had somehow discovered her alive. What else could she possibly believe was worth bartering with, after all, but a living testimony that she had the chance again to let Katerina go and had chosen loyalty to him and his brother the second time around. Proof that she had learned from her mistakes that he might just be willing to grant her a pardon for, particularly given his own motivations regarding said doppelganger.

The location he was asked to meet at was in the low country, disgustingly humid but drenched in both history and people. The sun had been up for a few hours, so the streets were crowded with a motley collection of humanity. The well dressed businessmen and women that he blended in with perfectly, some hooked to their mobile phones and others clinging to paper cups of tea and coffee like lifelines. There were the mothers taking infants – screaming or peaceful – out in their strollers. Children darted in and out of the side roads, laughing, playing sidewalk games, hastily retrieving posters, and talking each other's ears off as they waited for their school bus. Young adults dressed with little care for their appearance, with their baggy pants and loose shirts, that if he were to spare any thought for would guess to be college students, just trying to make it through one day at a time.

His own steps were careful, measured. There was no reason to rush, his audience waited on his whim, and it did them good to remember. Elijah was indulging in his own curiousity with this trip, there was no denying that, as such he fully intended to savour the moment. If he were to truly find a way to lure Niklaus out, then perhaps he could obtain some measure of personal peace, some way to live with himself with the perpetual knowledge that he would from then on be always alone in the way that mattered most.

Back straight, shoulders square, he walked up the driveway to the address his contact had passed on. There was a small disturbance in the front lawn, going by the weeds surrounding the muddy hole, faded and chipped paint on the shutters, and the battered address numbers, he would guess a foreclosure sign. The house was in reasonable condition overall, remarkably so to have come into the possession of vampires. He neatly stepped around the wood rot on the front porch and knocked at the door.

As expected, he was not left waiting long. The hurried footsteps he could here echoing through the house, crossing carpet and hardwood before the door opened turned out to belong to a young woman he had never met before. She stood barely a head above his shoulders, wearing a dull silver scarf, blue button up shirt and a blue grey pencil skirt. Her hair was tied back into a bun, and he almost thought perhaps she had been intending to leave for work, just a poorly timed visitor, if it weren't for both the pencil tucked curiously behind her ear and the tentative smile she gave him. There was something close to recognition in her eyes, closer still to nervousness, to the fear his presence generated amongst anyone with good sense. He felt something close to recognition himself. She was such a tiny thing, and she looked up at him as if she thought he could hang the moon. It was a disquieting amount of faith to see in a stranger.

The girl's heart was racing like a rabbit's, but as the door swung open fully, he found himself staring into her upturned eyes, the color of rich cognac much like her hair, although there were hints of grey or green around the very edge of her irises. She tugged at his memories of another young woman with an oval face and sweeping eyelashes, but they were not the same. Katerina was merely on his mind because of his hopes for this meeting. There was no need to read anything into any passing similarities when so many of the features he had been staring at were incredibly common.

Whatever had landed this young woman into a nest of vampires and appearing so cheerful to great a stranger, his priorities lay elsewhere. A human guard dog to prevent unwelcome guests was a well established trick. He could not fathom why it was deemed necessary in this instance, but it hardly mattered.

"You have been expected, Lord Elijah," The young woman still looked terribly pleased to see him, and he wondered again what made her look so happy, so hopeful. She beamed up to him, hesitating after a moment before turning what he recognised as a pleading expression his way. "Or does no one call you that anymore?"

"Not for centuries." Mild, but it would not do well for her to let him become impatient. Human and not responsible for his own mission or not. Fortunately for her, and moreso for his mood, she came to her senses shortly. "Please come in. There should be a clear walk way for you, all of the boxes are packed upstairs for now."

The human playing porter made some sense, but where was Rosemarie? Or had she fled and left the girl behind, incredibly sloppy if so. It would be beyond irritating to be left to clean up after someone with a death sentence over their heads, especially since he knew his brother would find it a hilarious thing to rub in for decades. It would also leave him empty handed, which would be a far more bitter pill to swallow. Yet he could not countenance such a possibility. Trevor fleeing from his fate, certainly, but Rose would not have reached out to him if she had not fully believed that she had a strong enough leverage to save herself from a continuous life on the run. In this, at least, he felt confident that she would not fail him again.

He followed the human girl into the kitchen, wrong footed and not enjoying the sensation in the least. There was more to this scenario than met the eye; only good manners and the fact she could be oblivious kept him from extracting the knowledge he wanted from her right now. The young woman leaned up on her toes to reach two dessert plates and carefully placed freshly baked fudge on both of them before passing one to him with an incredibly pleased expression on her face. "They were afraid you wouldn't come," she confided to him, the first assurance there were others involved, presumably Rose and Trevor. "But I was sure you would. Could I offer you a drink?"

The sheer careless stupidity of that question made him re-evaluate his estimate of her age. She seemed so earnest as she fetched a bottle of whiskey from under the counter at 9:03 in the morning and set it and a glass on top of an island. Her choice of outfit hid most of her skin, too much to not hint at their being a reason, given the local weather. A dark ripple of amusement had him wondering if she actually had meant to offer herself as well with the way she cradled the bottle in her wrist for a few moments, and that same amusement that stayed his hand. Perhaps the girl had been left behind as an emissary from a vampire that would think nothing of having a human offer their lives up carelessly, perhaps she was merely young and foolish.

"If Rose is not here, perhaps you can tell me what gave her the courage to call?"

This time, the human girl flinched, and he waited expectantly for her answer.

"There's a gift for you," she told him softly. "Although I should warn you, that my friends have others in their possession. They will be handed to you in the event that you and I both walk out of this house alive."

They will be handed. So not Katerina, he had expected as much given the utter silence in the rest of the house, but he had hoped otherwise. Elijah was left with more questions now, namely why a human would be left to negotiate on a vampire's behalf, for that certainly seemed to be the case. While it was true that he could just as easily compel a vampire as he could a human, a vampire had numerous advantages when dealing with him, from the change in heartbeat to the enhanced speed and strength that could potentially allow for an escape. A human that crossed him would simply be dead. "You make your gift sound remarkably like a threat."

"It's not intended that way; I promise. Think of it more as… as your current wish fulfillment? Please," she gestured to the island in front of him. The girl had moved to stand on the opposite side from him, giving herself a slight illusion of protection from him, an illusion he saw no reason to dispell. "Check the left drawer."

Slowly, he took his eyes off of the girl and directed his attention to the drawer as directed. In this instance, a human did make more sense to use, she couldn't move quickly enough to prove even a passing threat, for all that she claimed her 'friends' were watching the house. Drawing it open, he stared intently at three intricately carved wooden stakes. All of them were pale with metallic veins running through them that he recognised instantly despite the impossibility. They were white oak, and there was one for each living Original vampire left. And there were more of them.

The girl's phrasing of 'handed' instead of a more ambiguous 'given' made more sense now.

"Do you agree these are worth the pardon and freedom of Rosemarie? Her only crime was loyalty to her friend."

There had never been a chance that he would leave without these stakes in his possession, and he had already been inclined to forgive Rose, should she prove useful to him. She had, although not in the way that he had been expecting. And he did, terribly, want to rip the head off of the vampire that had cost him and his family so much. Sadly, he wasn't here.

Nothing was actually stopping Elijah from taking those stakes and leaving now, beyond the knowledge that the woman's 'friends' supposedly had more in their possession. The existence of any beyond the one his father possessed should have been impossible, so the question became did he believe her, and did he really care at this point.

"You are only negotiating for her?" She had been nibbling at the fudge but turned immediately back towards him as soon as he spoke. He watched the pencil fall off her ear and her face crumple into a frown. "I owe Rose a favor for helping me reach you," she explained earnestly. "I… I had hoped you would be inclined to agree on her behalf, and to perhaps hear me out in a request of my own."

She had made no such promises for Trevor, he surmised. Or perhaps, she realised it might well take an act of god for him to forgive the man.

"Should these 'friends' of yours give me possession of all the white oak that you have, not just the stakes you saw fit to carve from it, then yes. Rosemarie can have her freedom. As to the second matter, why?"

It was a simple question, and he asked it rather indulgently. He might not have been interested in any of the food or drink the little human hostess had offered, but if she had played a more active role in the discovery and gifting of these stakes as it sounded, then he was certainly curious as to why. Younger vampires did not seem to believe that his family were more than Grimm fairy tales. How, why, and what would possess a human to learn of them and then seek him out so doggedly? To present him with weapons that could end his life with all the detachment he expected from an accountant during tax season.

The girl placed her dessert fork down carefully across the plate and met his eyes, just as she had when she first opened the door. "A second gift, freely given. When I first tried to convince a contact to reach out to you," her voice was shaking, he noted now. "I told them that family is always and forever. Your entire family, save for Henrik, can be resurrected. For better or ill."

Try as he might, Elijah did not hear the tell of a lie. It was a foolish, impossible thing, even moreso than the existence of the white oak stakes. The fact that he wanted it to be true just made it less believable. There was the question of how she even knew about Henrik, however. Another mystery that he did not like lingering. The white oak, the precise number of his living family members, the identity of his youngest brother. He had not pegged her as a witch to know the future or the past so intimately, if she had been it would have been far easier to get his attention. Witches that were willing to go against nature and serve at the beck and call of vampires were by no means common, even if her powers were minute he might have had a use for her.

It would not have been a sure path to capture his attention; not when he already had witches whose motivations he was sure of. That, Elijah could admit to himself.

He circled the island, crossing the distance between the two of them, no longer in the mood for whatever games the girl was playing. She had his attention, as foolish of a desire as that might be.

"And how, could you possibly know that?"

Why say Henrik could not be saved, but imply that his mother could be? Or did she not know that his mother was dead, murdered at his father's hand? What the little remembrancer knew and did not would matter far more when he was satisfied with the source of her intelligence. It would take no effort to press just a little harder and compel the truth from the woman's lips if he needed to do so. Then and only then, Elijah would allow himself to wonder what she thought she might gain from telling him.

"Because this isn't my world, my universe. I want to be able to go home and live with my loved ones, with my family. In return, I happen to be both willing and able to reunite you with the siblings that you seek and your mother's body as well." Giving up all pretense of eating, the girl – whose name he would need to ask for at some point – stared blankly at the palms of her hands. "I've seen what could happen here, in your world. Impetuousness and short sighted decisions lead to too much destruction and unnecessary loss. I can help you. And you may be the only one who can truly help me."

Elijah turned away from her, leaving the kitchen for the sole sofa in the living room. After he was seated comfortably, he held up his right hand in a casual gesture, "Continue."

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.

He left the picturesque city of Charleston with a good deal more cheer than he had entered it. Elijah did not regret leaving behind any of the salt and grit the wind seemed so intent on coating his lungs with, naturally. He preferred the metal and glass of his own city over memories of a bygone age; memories that had become tainted with betrayal in his mind until today's revelations.

Reaching into his inner jacket pocket, his fingers brushed across cold wood. In another time, another place, just this morning or the day before, he would not have hesitated to consider possessing white oak stakes to be a boon. Now, he was far more inclined to ensure all of the impossible remnants of that tree burnt once again. He would too, of that the man had no doubts, possibly after he used one to shock some sense back into Niklaus. He had trusted him, believed the worst of his brother, but his brother had been the one to choose to tell such a horrible lie in the first place. For that, there would be consequences.

Elijah let himself in to the Martin's apartment; Jonas could hardly begrudge the intrusion while he was at work. He would update the warlock when he returned, until that time, Elijah perused the wall of grimoires that had been mounted in the family living space. The girl was in an impossible situation. Impossible and unbelievable, and yet she would have no reason to lie, no reason to make the bargain she had if her situation was any less peculiar.

At the very least, she believed it to be true.

He spent the afternoon surrounded by dust and fading ink, descriptions of spells in all manner of tongues from Latin to German, French to Old English. His brother was fond enough of his little trick, using the darker magics to possess the unwitting. There had never been any risk of the person he was possessing turning the tables on him and claiming control of his body instead; how could there be?

"Elijah?" Another book was cast aside, and he heard the door swing closed and footsteps approach. "What brings you by?" He heard the unspoken addendum of, 'Usually you knock.'

"I met a charming young woman today," he answered pleasantly. "Who believes that she is capable of doing the impossible. I find myself inclined to let her try."

Jonas gathered up several of the books that had been strewn across the coffee table, worry creasing his forehead. "And this impossible thing involves raiding the more obscure selections of my library?"

"You dislike being interrupted at work." As he understood it, working as a doctor required focus on one's patients, not serving as his personal research assistant. Jonas' countenance remained rather grim, unsatisfied by the vampire's response. "Cheer up, Dr. Martin. If she proves to be correct, then we will both have what we want soon."

"And if she doesn't?"

He turned to face the doctor and warlock with a bland expression, "Then we go back to our original plan. I will find my brother, one way or another. And you will have your daughter." But he doubted there would be any pressing need to backtrack. His own mission became the more delicate for needing to lure Niklaus into revealing where he had stashed away their family, but the threat of a white oak stake would not be one even his hybrid brother could ignore. "The woman I spoke with today believes she has found a human doppelganger."

Carefully returning a grimoire to its original place in the collection, Elijah did not miss the recognition and incredulity in the good doctor's eyes. The man's working theory was that his daughter was one of many witches who had been stolen over the generations to break the Sun and Moon curse. A curse he was now one of the few to know was possible to break in the intended, traditional manner.

"I shall, of course, be verifying this myself. You and your son are welcome to accompany me." All things considered, it was preferable to not leave them as loose ends, and their magical assistance would still be useful. "On an unrelated note, have you ever heard of travel between different worlds?"

"Why? You want to send Klaus to Mars?" Both men turned as Luka walked through the door, slinging his school bag to a chair. Elijah was far more composed than the father, but then he was unsurprised by the boy's arrival. "I suppose that's one way to take him out of the equation."

"No." No one would be harming his brother, however idiotic he insisted on being, not unless the girl was wrong. Should that be the case, he was well prepared already. "That will not be necessary. The young woman I spoke with today," the vampire waited patiently as the elder Martin hushed his son, "mentioned travel between alternate dimensions. I am aware of astral travel, of course, but it sounded as if she referred to a different matter entirely."

"Rumour has it that the Gemini Coven created physical prison worlds of a sort to isolate certain dangerous individuals of their line, but I'm afraid I don't know much about it. It's true there are other dimensions, but the vast majority can only be crossed by the dead. Did you want us to look into it?"

Elijah shook his head. "A passing interest, nothing more."He straightened his jacket absentmindedly. "I'll contact you once I have verified the doppelganger? I imagine it will be best for us to arrive separately. You will face much less suspicion that way from anyone who would disagree with our plans."

He waited just long enough for Jonas to confirm his agreement before breezing out the apartment door.

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His next stop was the office of an older gentleman whose acquaintance he had mad some years before. The room was a mixture of muted greens, cascading from the rich curtains that framed an old, foggy window and resting in the upholstery of the wingback chairs , and rich browns of the wooden panelling and the curving, practical secretary desk. The curtains were drawn back to allow the gentleman's ever growing collection of plants maximum access to the natural light that did stream into the room. This year, Hawkins' normal collection of rabbit's foot fern and ivy were accompanied by calathea, with a single struggling burst of yellow to show for its efforts.

"I hope you were not waiting too long, Mr. Smith."

Turning, Elijah greeted Hawkins pleasantly, assuring the man that he had not been in any way inconvenienced. Even if he had been, the vampire would not have been so gauche as to say so when the man in front of him was so visibly overworked. The man's eyes were heavily shadowed, and stubble softened a strong jaw, looking out of place on the normally clean shaven man. Ever professional, one of the many qualities Elijah appreciated about him, Hawkins wasted no time in lifting the topmost folder from a pile and passing it over.

A quick glance showed copies of the birth certificates for a Cynthia and an Elena Gilbert, the rest he could peruse at his own leisure. "Thank you, Hawkins. You have been a great deal of help, as always."

"It's the least I can do." The man's lips twisted in a smile. "I couldn't find as much as I would have liked."

If he knew a child he was raising was the primary sacrifice for a curse two species desperately wanted broken, Elijah imagined he would have kept the girl well hidden as well. In this instance, however, it was a rather futile goal.

"Did you locate the address I requested?" Hawkins' shoulders jerked back, an affronted scowl briefly crossing his face, at the mere suggestion he had failed such a crucial detail. Elijah clapped his shoulder reassuringly, "Then you have given me everything I truly need. Any other details, I will simply have to find out myself."

He watched as the human male's body posture slowly relaxed. "Very good then, sir."

Very good indeed.

The only information he really required on the doppelganger in order to lure his brother was her hometown, and that would have been self evident, even without her birth certificate. A town like Mystic Falls, where the majority of the population spent their whole lives in ancestral homes, it would have been no mystery to figure out. Particularly not when the man who raised her was a local doctor.

.

.

"How do you propose to not only find my extremely reclusive brother, but also convince him to return to me our family?" His tone remained deceptively mild as he scrutinized the young woman, hardly more than a child by modern standards, standing in front of him. For whatever reason, the room was bare of other furniture, so she had little in the way of choice on that account. "Or did you expect me to be content with them remaining in boxes for the rest of my immortal life? To trust your word that they still live with no proof to the contrary?"

"Daggers are very easily removed, Elijah. All you need is to find Niklaus in the first place. Once that is accomplished..." The girl's brows had knit together, visibly debating her answer. "I trust in your ability to secure your brother's agreement. I happen to know someone he would very much like to meet."

"Please," Perhaps he would net Katerina after all. How marvelous. "The suspense is killing me."

She did not bother to hide her smile, "I just so happen to have found myself as the twin of a Petrova doppelganger."

"Impossible. Katerina died childless." Klaus' fury had known no bounds once they had discovered the doppelganger had been Turned, and he had unleashed that fury on all of her surviving family members quite thoroughly. A child would have been noticed and might have even smoothed some of his rage.

"Katerina was exiled from Bulgaria by her family for having a child out of wedlock, besides which it was not your mother's spell that created the doppelgangers. I'm sure Nature would have found a way regardless. Although I do agree; the idea of her having a twin seems wrong. But I cannot deny the family resemblance."

Elijah leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees. "If you have a human doppelganger, why come to me? Why not contact my brother directly?"

"Lord Elijah," her smile flickered, "as much as I respect your delightfully violent brother, the one person I recall attempting to negotiate with him was Elena's birth mother, one Isobel Saltzman nee Flemming . He compelled her to commit suicide by sunlight. While I may not be overly devoted to this body that I woke up in, it's still the only one I have." She clasped her hands behind her back, twisting her fingers while trying and failing to meet his gaze now. "I like to imagine, and please, feel free not to correct me if I am wrong, that you might refrain from ending my life so long as you do not consider me disloyal to your interests. All I ask is that as I assist you with your family…."

"I assist you in finding your own loved ones." He filled in, leaning back into the seat. The young woman remained silent, except for the occasional anxious flutter of her hands to tug at her skirt or hair. When he was satisfied, Elijah rose to his feet and offered her a hand with a gallant smile. "We have a deal, Miss - ?"

She accepted his hand with a delicate grip and offered a deep curtsey. "Cynthia Gilbert," she answered once she had straightened her spine. "Currently, of Mystic Falls, Virginia. You're welcome to visit me anytime."

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.

He would be visiting, right after he made some arrangements with her dear mother Isobel. The woman apparently so skilled at research that she was capable of discovering his wayward brother; even if she had been incredibly foolish to do so in the first place.

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Elijah gets the POV camera lens in my attempts to make up for how darn long it took the plot to reach him.
(Don't tell Damon. He might get jealous.)